Civil War Letter On Bushwhackers and Rebbels by D.O. Kelley.
May 7, 1863
Still in Winchester, Virginia, Kelley apologizes to his sister for not writing sooner "but we have been looking dayly for a fight there for the last few days there has been a force of the Rebbels laying about 18 miles from here." No matter how anxious the threat of a skirmish makes Kelley, nothing seems to be as terrifying as the bushwhackers, "rather a bloodthirsy lot…it is nothing when a person is traveling along the road to See a man laying dead but has been bushwhacked or shot they take every advantage." The rest of Kelley's letter details four weeks of troop movements through western Virginia.